By voting decisively Tuesday to keep pursuing Salt Lake City's efforts to host the 1998 Winter Olympics, the people of Utah have cast a solid vote of confidence in their ability to handle a big challenge.
Though the 57 percent to 43 percent vote of approval on this referendum fell short of what opinion polls indicated the margin of victory would be, it still constitutes a mandate for hosting the Olympics - a mandate made unmistakably clear by the unusually large voter turnout in a municipal election year. Indeed, if measured against the usual standards of how well candidates do at the ballot box, the 14 percent margin of victory constitutes a major landslide.Meanwhile, even though the outcome of the vote means Utah promoters of the Olympics have surmounted a major hurdle, it's too soon for them to start cheering yet because the hardest work still lies ahead.
Still to be accomplished is the tough job of persuading the International Olympic Committee to select Salt Lake City as the site of the 1998 games - and the task of making sure that some important promises are kept.
At each stage of this process, Utah can expect continued debate over whether the decision to host the Olympics is a sound investment or a risky gamble. Utah can also expect heated discussions over which specific sites should get the bobsled run, speed-skating oval and ski jumping facilities to be built as part of Utah's bid.
But the gadflies who keep nipping at the flanks of the movement to bring the Olympics to Utah can serve a useful purpose if they stop trying to thwart the effort and start trying to make sure that public funds being devoted to Utah's bid are spent as carefully and responsibly as possible.
Even if Utah does not get the Winter Olympics in 1998 or even in the year 2002, Tuesday's referendum has put this state firmly on the path to becoming a major center for winter sports and for training Olympic athletes.
Consequently, long after the outcome of Tuesday's voting is forgotten, Utahns will remember whether or not a long list of top state leaders and organizations made good on promises to develop Utah's winter sports resources without ruining the environment, incurring steep costs and impairing Utahns' wholesome lifestyle.
If any of these pledges are broken, the consequences will include more than just plenty of red faces in prominent places. Much worse, any such breach of faith will make it hard to win public support for other bold plans involving the use of public funds in Utah's development.
But enough of such warnings. At this point, we are more than confident in Utah's ability to handle the challenges involved in the Olympics bid simply because we are confident in the strength of Utahns' minds and hearts.
Meanwhile, with Tuesday's pivotal referendum now behind us, let's all roll up our sleeves and get on with the job. There's still plenty of hard work to be done in pursuing the 1998 Winter Olympics.